[Leading Better] Leading an Exhausted Team? Start here

Each week alternates between Leading Better and Living Bigger insights. This week…

[Lead Better] Leading an Exhausted Team? Start here

Finding yourself fazing out in conversations? Easily distracted? Team members have hair-trigger reactivity? Maybe a bit spacey?

We’ve become energy colanders living in COVID’s shadow. That emergency may be over, but we continue to juggle individual and global crises.

And there’s ongoing grief. We’ve all lost something—jobs, stability, peace of mind.

Noting energy depletion symptoms in your team, where do you start?

By artfully bringing humanity front and center: get your team to name this tsunami of overwhelm as a dastardly fiend.

That Bast**d Overwhelmo [or whatever]. Give it a name.

Gives it dimension. Something you can all target.

Just having a team vision is no longer enough. We also need to know our common enemy. To look it in the eye, then collectively mock, repudiate, and banish it.

‘You won’t touch this team. We are too strong. We take care of each other.’

Self-care (and team care) is no longer a luxury. It’s essential.

Make self-care (and team-care) a regular topic of conversation. Start meetings with ‘What’s one good thing you’ve done for yourselves?’ 'What's a meaningful conversation you've had?'

Come up with a group energisation plan. Suggestions on how to conserve people’s valuable cognitive and emotional energy for what’s crucial at work and home. Process improvement etc

Embrace mistakes and failures. Share them at meetings, then discuss the multiple lessons that they revealed. How that failure is a gift.

Make meeting participation easier – ‘Sam, what’s your best worst question about x?’ ‘Terry, what are you seeing that we’re not?’

Promote novel solution finding. How would people from 200 years ago solve this problem? Select a random word and ask a team member how that word unlocks the solution.

Naming, then fighting this ‘dread beast’ together gives you a shared purpose, a sense of belonging, renewed hope. You begin to take back control.

The same goes for naming your leadership enemy.

Do you know what it is? I can help with that. Learn more here

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#executivecoaching ?#TransformationalLeadership ?#LeadershipTraining ?#teamdevelopment #LeadershipCoaching

Bruce speaks at conferences, runs leadership workshops, consults, and coaches.

Enquire about working with Bruce:

? [email protected] or ? +64 21 548 900

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P.S. Whenever you're ready, below (in Comments) are 3 ways I work with business leaders to upgrade their leadership battery, engage their hidden fifth gear and support them achieve what matters deeply to them